Thursday, December 17, 2015

Snow?? More like sunny and 75 ‏

Hello family !!! Wahhhhh I can't
believe that it's only like less than two weeks until Christmas ! That's
nuts!! But also so exciting :) thank you so much the pre Christmas
package. When I saw the candy chains I almost started crying, thanks so
much mom, that made me so happy :) How are y'all liking the snow ?! Haha
it has been crazy this last week, it's been sunny and yesterday it got
up to about 75 outside. Everyone is like wearing shorts and t shirts.
Doesn't really feel too much like December, but I don't have any
complaints ️

I am actually just shocked at how
fast this week went by, it makes me nervous because I know these next
few weeks are going to be flying by too.... Too many mixed emotions!

To start off the week, Tuesday we
had an all day zone Christmas meeting and it was really cool ! First off
this guy from the mission department came and they installed these
black boxes into our cars. They are called tiwi , and they are to
monitor our driving and everything so that we are good safe drivers. We
had some awesome trainings by the AP's and President and Sister
Andersen. It was all centered on Jesus Christ and his birth. It was
awesome ! After that we had a delicious lunch, which sister Andersen
prepared for everyone ! It was ham, potatoes, salad, beans, roles, and
dessert. Seriously so delicious. She is so sweet and the best ! After
that we did a white elephant gift exchange with all the missionaries and
then a scarf exchange with the sisters and the elders did a tie
exchange. It was so fun ! I love my mission and my mission leaders,
seriously the TNM is the best mission ever :) president and sister
Andersen also had special temple recommend holders made for everyone
that has the Nashville Temple on the outside and then on the inside our
mission logo and mission theme. It was so sweet of them ! Now that is a
good gift that I will have forever! We then had a Christmas talent show
and it was fun, all the Hermanas sang a Spanish Christmas song but it
was so incredibly awkward ! But really funny, I guess I don't really
like performing in front of people, I was more red than a tomato.... But
everyone seemed to like it, so I guess that is a good thing, right ??
Hahaha

After that we went on exchanges and
I went off to the great land of.... Shelbyville TN again haha it was
fun like always. I went with a cute sister, Sister Brennan, she is
amazing and such a good missionary ! She has been out for about 5 months
and I am just in shock at how good of a missionary she is. I was like
taking down notes of everything I learned from her, she is amazing. We
had to bike, which I don't mind, but the only probably is, I am too tall
for all the bikes ! And everyone in shelbyville has like HUGE dogs, but
none of them are on leashes or anything. Like we almost got attacked by
2 pit bulls and a German Shepard. It was HORRRRRIBLE. The worst part is
that I know dogs can smell fear and I have like fear of dogs oozing out
of me... It was so scary.... So I rode my bike with rocks in my hand to
throw at the dogs when they came near me, it was pretty good self
defense.

As for the rest of the week I can't
remember too much, it just consisted of a lot of driving and a lot of
tracking, which I don't mind at all :) it's been awesome to share the
new Christmas video with everyone. I love it ! Seriously the spirit it
brings and how easy it is to relate back to the restoration of the
gospel . I love love love it. I am so thankful that I have the chance to
spend 2 Christmas on my mission, it truly is the best time of the year!
I am so grateful for my savior Jesus Christ and that he came to earth
to save me, and everyone of us. It truly is the best gift we could ever
receive. if you haven't see the video A Savior is Born, you need too ! (Josh, watch it in Spanish... It's better... )
I think my favorite line in it is "The only one who could save us, from
our sins, from our sadness." I LOVE IT! And it's soooo true, everything
that is good, that is happy, and is joyful is because of Jesus Christ !
He truly is the light of the world! He is the light that shines in the
darkness.

Our investigators are doing really
well ! We had a pretty big miracle this week ! It was with one
investigator, Maggy. She had been taught and was coming to church and
really started progressing, but then her husband said that they needed
to go to the Catholic Church.... And put their kids incatecismo
classes (sorry I only know how to say it in Spanish...) to prepare them
to be baptized in the Catholic Church... Well so we would occasionally
stop and visit her, but nothing was really happening, which was pretty
sad because her 9 and 7 year old sons Carols and Santi really love the
gospeland learning and
reading from the Book of Mormon and everything. Well Monday night we got
in and I was scrolling through the contacts on the phone and I saw
maggy's name and so I was like "let's call Maggy!" So we called her and
she seemed really surprised we called and said we could go over this
week. So we went over and guess what ?! SO apparently carols and santi
were about to get baptized and something had with the priest and they
ended up not getting baptized ()
and I guess there were just some bad feelings there and such. So then
Maggy is talking to her husband and is like "I think this is sign we
aren't supposed to be baptizing our kids in the Catholic Church, and
that they needed to go to the Church of Jesus Christ." AND THEN WE
CALLED HER !!! I love how the sprit works. I have such a strong
testimony of acting on the small promptings that we receive :) we have
another lesson set for this week so we are praying all will keep going
well :)

Lupe is still doing good and
progressing ! It was his birthday yesterday and so on Saturday the
Burgos family took us all out to dinner, it was so fun ! Lupe is awesome
but I am just like "come on! You know it's true , just get baptized
already.." But I have been learning a lot of patience on my mission and I
know that it's something I need to be patient with and trust in the
lord and his timing.

I think thats about it for this
week, sorry my emails are always so long ! But I hope y'all are doing
well and know that I am praying for y'all. I am seriously so blessed to
have just the best family ever ! I am soooo excited to skype in just
about 11 or so days :) have a great week !!! Be safe in the snow ️️